Under Control
by TimeLady-12
Summary: Riley Moore wasn't exactly average. Being a mutant working at Stark Industries, how could she be? But when her secret is revealed just when she's getting closer to a certain super soldier, will she be able to keep things normal, or will things take a turn for the worse? [Set after the events of Avengers Assemble] Steve/OC
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

"I'm not doing it."

"I'm your boss. I can make you do whatever I like."

Riley Moore glared at her boss with her hands planted firmly on her hips in what she hoped was an intimidating move. Not that it would have much affect of course, nothing intimidated Tony Stark. Well, Pepper might be an exception, thought Riley, but with her short stature and calm moods, she doubted she'd make an impact. "Okay, first thing, you _can't_ make me do whatever you like, and second, I've already told you I don't want to meet them!"

"I don't see why not. They're all dying to meet you! Don't think they haven't noticed you avoiding them the entire time you've worked here."

"And did you ever think that there was a reason for that?" Riley scowled. She'd been working at Stark Tower for nearly half a year now, hired by Tony Stark himself for reasons even she couldn't understand. She'd applied for the job on the off-chance that she'd _maybe_ be accepted and luckily for her, a day hadn't even gone by the time she'd heard back with the good news. So now here she was working at Stark Tower, an entire lab for herself and, up to now, a successful job at avoiding most of the people that lived there. She knew that most people would be thrilled to work in the same place that the 'famous' Avengers lived in, but she didn't exactly qualify as most people.

"Okay then, what's the reason? And don't give me the "I'm not a people person" thing that you keep telling me." Replied Tony, his voice giving away the fact that he was beginning to get annoyed at the all too familiar conversation.

"What can I say? I'm really not."

"Well that _really_ is too bad."

"Why?" asked Riley, suspicion creeping into her voice.

"No reason."

It was only a few seconds later that the elevator they were both stood in came to a stop. Tony had given Riley the rest of the day off and, rather happy about this, she planned to spend a quiet afternoon in with a TV box set and a glass of wine.

"Wait, what floor is this?" Glancing at the wall, she saw the number 81 lit up, not the number 1 like she was expecting. "I hate your elevators, you can never tell which way you're going. Why are we up here?"

"You'll see." Smirked Tony.

Not trusting the tone in Tony's voice (the last time she had, he'd got Pepper to drag her around countless shops for an entire day; not the end of the world, but it was sometimes very hard to keep up with Pepper, and that was one of those days), Riley took a hesitant step out of the elevator only to freeze when she looked up.

There, standing in front of her, were four other members of the Avengers. People she'd managed to successfully avoid up until this point. Judging from the look on most of their faces, she gathered that they didn't particularly want to be there any more than she did, although they did all manage a smile in her direction as she stepped into the room.

"Okay, finally! Everyone's in the same room! Well, apart from Mr Muscles but let's just forget about him." grinned Tony, strutting into the room, leaning against the breakfast bar as he looked from person to person with glee.  
Riley assumed he meant Thor when he said 'Mr Muscles' and it was only when the man she knew as Steve Rogers spoke that she moved any further into the room.

"It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am. I'm Steve Rogers."

"Riley Moore." She smiled, trying not to flinch too much as he reached out to shake his hand. There was an awkward silence after that, as if nobody else knew what to say.

"Well I'm having a fun time, I don't know about anyone else. Well, if no one else is going to do introductions, I guess I'm gonna have to. Riley, this is Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton and Dr. Bruce Banner, who out of everyone I'm most surprised you haven't met yet considering you only work a floor above him."  
Riley kept silent, trying to avoid the uncomfortable stares that were coming her way. "So, how about we get to know each other, yeah? Riley, how about…"

"Listen Tony, this has been fun and all, but I think I'm going to head off. I'm going home tonight and I need to pack and…"

"No! It's just gone lunch; you have all afternoon until you need to go home. Clint and Natasha have no missions, Steve's here in New York and I've finally got Bruce out of his lab. So we're gonna be one big happy family for the afternoon." Riley groaned. "That's the spirit!"

* * *

By the end of the afternoon, Riley had to admit, she'd had a pretty good time. Although she didn't believe Tony when he'd said they all been eager to meet her (why would they be, after all?), they didn't seem annoyed by her company and she counted that as a win in her book.

"Okay, well this has been fun, but I really need to get going now." She said, moving to stand up. The two spies muttered a goodbye as they left the room while Bruce gave a nod in her direction as he passed.

It wasn't until she was back in the elevator that she realised that she was still in the company of none other than Steve Rogers. The silence was awkward as they both stood there, and unable to take it any longer, Riley decided to speak up.

"So um…you should come to my lab some time." She could sense his surprise without even looking at him. "I mean, from what I hear from Tony, you don't leave the gym very often and uh…I don't get many visitors down there. _Any_ visitors actually…"

"Um, yes. O…of course. I'll see what I can do."

"Cool, I'll uh…I'll see you down there sometime then, maybe?" Riley smiled, internally wondering why on earth she'd said that.

Steve nodded, giving her a soft smile in return. And with that, Riley watched the supersoldier quickly hurry out of the elevator without another word.

Riley didn't let it bother her. She'd heard (from Tony mostly) that Steve kept mostly to himself. Not that she blamed him; she couldn't imagine waking up and having everything you've ever known taken away from you. She couldn't hold it against him that he needed to take time alone. She could relate to that.

Riley didn't think about her meetings for the rest of the day. After her hour with the Avengers, she took a quick detour back to her lab, picking up some paperwork she'd forgotten about earlier. It annoyed her that she'd have to find time to do it while she was back home, but it needed to be handed back in on the Monday morning so there was nothing she could do about it.

* * *

Steve Rogers watched as Riley left her lab, stuffing a huge stack of papers into the bag that was hanging off her shoulders.

"Took a shine to Riles, huh, Capsicle?"

Steve's eyes widened slightly before settling in a slight glare. "Don't be stupid, Tony. I…I don't even know her."

"Not yet." Tony wiggled his eyebrows. "I heard about your little lab date from Jarvis though."

Steve pushed past the billionaire, frustrated by his words. He was telling the truth to Tony, he really _didn't_ know her. She'd only been in the room an hour, forced by Tony (like the rest of them) to be there and even then, he'd done most of the talking. All he knew of Riley was that she'd been working here at Stark Industries for nearly six months, nothing else. Strangely, he found himself actually _wanting_ to know more about here after their brief introduction this afternoon. She'd barely spoken, and yet he wanted her to. Heck, he was looking forward to visiting this girl he barely knew in her lab.

"All I'm saying…" came Tony's voice as he followed Steve down the hallway. "…is that you should take her out, god knows she needs to live a little. Then maybe take her back here for a little…"

"Tony, please." While he was used to the things that came out of Tony's mouth, it didn't mean he liked hearing them any more. "Enough."

"Alright." Tony held up his hands in surrender. "All I'm saying is she's a good catch, you could do a lot worse."

Steve fought down the faint blush on his cheeks at Tony's words, walking away from him and back into the elevator, pressing the button for the gym. Hopefully that would take his mind off what Tony had said.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

It never took Riley long to drive home. About half an hour at the most. She didn't get down there nearly as much as she'd like, and honestly she had no excuse for why she didn't. It wasn't as if she was constantly busy or anything. Tony was pretty generous with time off.

She smiled as she finally pulled into the driveway. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was her first true home and always made her happy as soon as she saw the sign. Slowing the car to a stop, Riley quickly got out the car, hauling her bag out with her as she did so, and made her way up the stairs and through the door.

Glancing around at the mansion that never seemed to change, Riley walked over to the kitchen, dumping her bag on the table before slumping over in a chair.

"Rough day?" came a voice to her left. Glancing up, Riley grinned when she saw her friend Kitty standing in front of her.

Scraping the chair behind her in her haste to get up, Riley wrapped her arms around Kitty in greeting. The last few times she'd been home, Kitty hadn't been there, either on a mission or visiting friends. It was good to finally see her. "You could say that." Riley laughed. "Sometimes, all I want to do is leave that job and hide away here for the rest of my life."

"Well, I'm sure a lot of the students here would love that, and so would I of course." Smiled Kitty. "But I think it would drive you stir crazy if you stayed here. Courtesy of Logan obviously."

"Oh obviously" Riley rolled her eyes. "Where _is_ he anyway? He's normally here when I arrive."

"I'm not too sure, actually. He's been gone for a few days already. If you're lucky, he might be back before you have to go."

"Oh yes! If _only_ I was that lucky!" laughed Riley, heading towards the fridge and pulling out a piece of cheesecake that she'd found. She could always count on there being good food at the School. "Hey Storm."

"Hello Riley." Replied the white-haired mutant, sending her a gentle smile. "What are you doing back?"

"Just a quick visit over the weekend. It's been a while since I've been back and I was beginning to miss people. There's only so much Tony Stark someone can take."

"You _do_ know that you chose to work there, don't you?"

"Of course I do. But that doesn't mean that I never need a break. Especially since he made me meet everyone today…" Riley muttered, glaring at the floor.

"Everyone as in…?"

"Everyone as in the Avengers, everyone."

"And it went okay? You didn't have any slip-ups?" asked Storm, looking concerned for her friend.

"No, I'm just glad that no one noticed my wince when Steve shook my hand. I'm still not good with physical contact." Riley said, with a heavy sigh, stabbing at her food with a fork.

"But you're getting better." Said Kitty, smiling. "The Professor will probably want to hear about this though. With that many strong personalities under one roof, he'll want to make sure you'll be okay. Especially with you talking to them now."

"Yeah, I know." Riley pinched the bridge of her nose. "I think I'll be fine though. I mean, they've still been there while I've been working and I've not had any problems."

"You better talk to him, just to make sure." Said Storm, taking a seat.

"Right." Riley sighed, dumping her now empty plate onto the side and making her way towards the Professor's office. She could feel his presence in there before she was even outside the door, and she heard him grant her entry before she'd even raised her hand to knock. "Hello Professor." She smiled once she'd sat down. She'd been living at the school since she was 12 years old when her mutation had first began to truly come to the surface and had quickly grown close to the Professor given the slight similarities in their abilities.

"Hello Riley. How are you?" greeted the Professor.

"I'm alright, thank you, Professor. Kitty said you'd want to speak to me…about-"

"About the people in Stark Tower." He finished.

"Yeah…but I've been working there for six months now. I don't understand why this is suddenly seeming like an issue."

"I was under the impression that you've not met the people in that tower before."

"Well, yeah…I've avoided most of them to be honest. But I can still sense them in the building. It's really not that intense being in the same room. Well, as intense as I thought it would be anyway." She gave the Professor a reassuring smile.

"As long as you're sure." He replied.

"I am." Riley nodded.

"Good. Then I have no need to worry. Some of the younger students have been asking after you. They miss your science classes." The Professor chuckled.

"It's a shame I'm only here for the weekend then. I don't think they'll like me much if I give them a class on a Saturday."

"No, I don't suppose they would. Another time then."

"Definitely." Agreed Riley, grinning.

* * *

Steve breathed deeply as another punching bag fell to the floor with a thud.

"You know, I think I spend about half of my company's budget on these." Said Tony, entering the gym and nudging a punching bag with this foot.

"Believe it or not, Tony, but I actually came in here for some peace and quiet." Replied Steve, picking up another and hanging it up.

"Funny way of getting peace and quiet." Laughed Tony, leaning against the ropes of the boxing ring that was in the middle of the floor.

"What do you want, Tony? It's only been two hours since I last saw you."

"Oh, I'm wounded! Does that mean that I can't visit my own gym whenever I want? Don't forget, I'm the one letting you use it." Steve rolled his eyes, opting to remain silent. He was _far_ too used to Tony's behaviour by now, although that didn't mean that it still didn't annoy him. "I'm rather under the impression that you don't _actually_ want me here, Captain."

"I don't know where you'd get _that_ idea from…" Steve muttered to himself, unraveling the wraps on his hands, knowing that he wouldn't get anything done now that Tony was there.

Tony smirked. "I know what it is. You're annoyed at what I said earlier. About Riley. There couldn't _possibly_ be anything else I've annoyed you with." Steve looked down and scowled. "I'm right. Well, I'm always right so there's no surprise there… But it's nothing to be ashamed about. Riley has a strange gift where you can't help but like her. It's hard not to, and a little scary if I'm honest."

Steve let out a strained laugh. "Yeah, I _had_ noticed. Even Natasha was smiling."

"Exactly. _So_ , you have the entire weekend to come up with all the charming things you can possibly think of to try and…what did they say in the forties? ' _Woo_ her'."

"I'm not going to try and 'woo her', Stark. Stop being ridiculous."

"I'm not being ridiculous. She doesn't let just anyone in her lab, ya know. It's like, her secret hideaway. Even _I'm_ not aloud in there, although I go in there anyway. I mean, it _is_ my lab after all."

"Your point, Stark?"

"My _point_ , is that she invited you for a little lab date-"

"-It's not a date-"

"-and that's not exactly classic Riles. You're a lucky guy cap. Just try not to mess it up before anything even happens." Tony smirked.

* * *

 **A/N: okay, so here is chapter 2! Thank you for those of you that's favourited, followed and reviewed! I love you all! I just love Tony trying to play match-maker! I'll try and get chapters out as quick as I can, but I'm starting uni again in a couple of weeks so things will probably be pretty hectic so you'll just have to bare with me a bit.**

 **Until next time! 3**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

It was early in the morning when Riley walked into her lab the following Monday morning. Dumping all of her completed paperwork (which she'd rushed to do on the Sunday night) on the side, she placed her bag next to it, wincing when her stomach rumbled.

Exiting her lab, she quickly took the elevator to the top floor and made her way over to the kitchen.

Rifling through the cupboards, she smiled when she pulled out a packet of butter croissants that had been shoved to the back. Pulling out two, Riley didn't hesitate in taking a bite, almost choking when she heard a throat clear behind her. Spinning around, her eyes immediately met those of Steve Rogers.

"S…Steve. Hi." She stuttered, giving him a small smile.

"Hello, ma'am." He smiled back, a faint blush on his cheeks that Riley didn't notice.

"What, ah…what are you doing up? Not that you're not allowed to be up, that's stupid considering you live here…I just meant, ah…I don't normally see anyone up at this time." She internally winced at how she sounded.

"Yes, well…I'm normally in the gym at this time but I woke up a tad earlier than normal so…"

Riley nodded. She could feel a slight insight into his emotions- nervousness for some reason that she couldn't understand and a small bit of happiness. "Right…I need to be getting back to my lab now but I'll probably see you later." She didn't even allow Steve to reply before she hurried out of the room, leaving him confused at her sudden departure. She seemed to always do that- hurry out of the room as if she couldn't leave fast enough and he'd began to wonder whether or not it was something _he_ was saying.

Riley shook her head in annoyance as she left the room. She cursed at her inability to talk to, well, anyone that wasn't at the school. It had taken her weeks to finally warm up to Tony, and that was purely because of the fact that he had constantly followed her around while she worked until she finally gave in and spoke to him. Tony was the exception, and by extension, so was Pepper. And she wasn't going to lie when she said that the Avengers intimidated her. They had some of the strongest personalities in New York, although Tony probably contributed to about half of that, she thought to herself with a chuckle. Yes, she'd coped with Tony for six months. She could handle four other people. But none of them knew of her struggles, not even Tony. Though as far as she was concerned, that was how it was going to stay.

Even Tony didn't know that she went to a school for mutants for fourteen years, he didn't know that she still visited frequently, and he definitely didn't know that the people she regarded as family were mutants. She was almost positive that he didn't have anything against mutants- one of his closest friends was the Hulk for goodness sake- but it was that _almost_ that stopped her from saying anything. She'd made the mistake of telling someone she'd trusted before about her abilities, and it hadn't ended well in the slightest. Riley had vowed to never make the same mistake again.

Pushing the depressing memories to the back of her mind, Riley pushed the button for the elevator and hurried inside, missing Steve's small concerned look in her direction.

* * *

It was around three in the afternoon when Steve finally worked up the courage to go to Riley's lab. He'd been wandering between there and his room for the last hour and a half, always chickening out at the last minute. _She was probably just inviting you to be nice_ , he thought to himself. _She's not actually expecting you to turn up._ He never knew what to say to the girls he liked; he found it a miracle in itself when it turned out that Peggy had returned his feelings, and despite the fact that he'd made peace with that situation months ago, he couldn't find it in himself to believe there might be a chance that someone else could _possibly_ like him, even with the serum.

But this wasn't like that. Tony had all but told them all that Riley had basically been avoiding them all since she'd started working at Stark Tower, but even so, it was completely obvious even to Steve that she was uncomfortable with people in general. She hid it well, but he knew what to look for. She'd sat isolated, avoiding as much physical contact as possible, only speaking when necessary and avoiding any and all eye contact. But despite all that, the times when she _had_ spoken, he'd found that she was someone who he'd actually like to talk to. He couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly, but he was determined to find out.

Which was why he was currently standing outside her lab debating whether to knock or to just walk in.

In the end, he'd decided to knock, though after five minutes of there being no answer, he cautiously opened the door to find Riley hunched over a desk inspecting what appeared to be a vial of blood under a microscope, completely oblivious to her surroundings.

"Uh, Riley?"

Snapping her head up in shock, Riley's guarded face quickly became one of relief as Steve took another tentative step into her lab. "Steve. Uh, hi." She inwardly cringed at her response.

"I was just…stopping by. You said I should, so…I did."

"No, no. I'm glad you could make it. I've been tearing my hair out with this, I was needing a break." She gestured wildly to the mess that was scattered across the desk. Steve found it a miracle that she knew where anything was.

"What are you doing?" asked Steve, now moving to stand next to her. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Oh, not at all." Replied Riley, trying to focus on anything but the presence on the super soldier standing right next to her. Which was hard. Very hard. Though she was finally talking normally to him. So far, so good. "It's a sample of…mutant's blood. I'm trying to figure out the key to the mutation. It's a rather unique one. You can look at it if you want. I've been working on this for months. Since before I even came here. I just can't figure it out and Tony let's me work on it when I haven't got much else on. Go ahead." She said, gesturing to the microscope.

Smiling softly, Steve leant forward and looked into the microscope. He was in no way an expert in cell biology, but even he knew that these weren't normal cells. They were shimmering, fading in and out and there were hundreds of them in just one tiny sample. "That's…amazing! Whose blood is this?"

Riley paused for a split second before smiling at Steve's enthusiasm. Giving that he was from a time before mutants were known, she wasn't sure how he would react to all of this. He seemed to be taking it well and that made her very happy. "Just someone that came to me for help. It's very important to them."

"Well," smiled Steve, stepping back from the microscope. "I think you're very kind to help them."

* * *

"Steve, can I ask you a question?" asked Riley, who was now perched on the end of her desk facing the soldier. It was now about seven in the evening and Riley had found herself immensely enjoying Steve's company. They'd been talking for the majority of the time, with her explaining a lot of her work as they talked and him asking a lot of questions in return.

"Of course, ma'am. Anything." Smiled Steve, sitting upright in his chair.

"What do you do all day? Because I've been trying to figure it out and I'm coming up empty. You always seem to be in the Tower."

"Oh, uh…" Steve was at a loss on how to answer. "I uh…mostly try to catch up with things I've missed over the years. I've started a list on things to look up. I've been asking JARVIS for advice on it, which is strange in itself considering that whole 'voice out of thing air' still makes me quite uncomfortable." He chuckled.

Riley nodded along. "Well, I can help you with that if you want? I mean, I don't have to of course; it's just if you want me to. I don't want to get in the way but…"

"That would be lovely." Interrupted Steve, finally getting to look the young woman in the eyes as he smiled. _Her eyes are a beautiful shade of green…_ "Are you free tomorrow? Perhaps you could look at it then?" He'd never been so forward with a woman, yet he found that he liked it. It was easy with Riley.

"Well, I have quite a hectic day tomorrow actually. I have a couple of meetings with Pepper and Tony about budgets and other boring stuff like that and then a massive load of paper work to get through that I didn't take with me at the weekend." Steve nodded dejectedly. "But I'll see what I can do."

And she'd have happily ignored all her work for the next week (and facing the wrath of Pepper in the process) if it meant she got to see Steve smile like that again.

* * *

 **A/N: Phew! My university work is definitely piling up; I have basically no free time! But I've been really wanting to update this story for so long, so here we are! I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. We have more insight into Riley's personality and we'll be finding out more about her past and abilities in chapters to come!**

 **As always, favourite and review! The more reviews, the quicker the updates! :)**


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